Alexey Kudrin

Chairman, Russian Audit Chamber

“If we take the period from 1999 to 2008, the average annual growth rate for this decade was 6.9%. This is a normal rate for doubling GDP in 10 years, and we were growing at this rate. But, over the past six years, our GDP has grown by only 3% -- that is, less than 1% per year. That was affected by sanctions, and oil prices fell.”

After targeting Georgian wine exports and announcing a flight ban following anti-Moscow protests in Tbilisi, the Kremlin claimed no "illegal" sanctions are being employed. However, the so-called "restrictions" from the Russian side are clearly designed to hit Georgia's bottom line.

Dmitry Peskov

Russian presidential press secretary

“I want to remind you of the words of President Putin, that indeed the number of people whose incomes have decreased has slightly increased due to external economic conditions and in connection with a variety of economic processes that are taking place in our economy. At the same time, one cannot talk about the growth of poverty in this case.”

Russia’s statistics agency reported more than 12.9% of population, or 18.9 million people, were living below the poverty line in 2018. Other state agencies disputed official statistics saying the actual number of poor was nearly 30 million with 25% growth of poverty.

RIA Novosti

The headline is misleading: the quoted expert actually said Russia will gain leverage over the Ukrainian economy in the area of oil, coal, and oil products, although even this is doubtful, as Ukraine has alternatives. Poland recently overtook Russia as Ukraine's largest single trading partner.

Vladimir Putin’s assessment of the financial and reputational damage is correct: the contamination cost Russia and its European clients billions of dollars. However, the investigation is ongoing and Putin’s claim that the contamination was the result of fraud is, at this point, groundless.

Dmitry Peskov

Kremlin's press secretary

“We need to remember that our Chinese partners did not join the sanctions themselves, the so-called sanctions, but it’s more correct to speak of restrictions -- which, moreover, are illegal from the point of view of international law.”

Beijing did not formally join international sanctions against Russia and so did not impose its own measures. China criticized Western sanctions, yet even Peskov says Russia's "Chinese partners often display caution" -- defacto compliance.

Alexey Kudrin

Chairman of the Audit Chamber of the Russian Federation

“In terms of public debt, its value, we are just different from the whole world with [our] low debt. Russia's debt will be much more expensive than that of other countries, so we need to be more careful than other countries, and not to compare ourselves in terms of [debt] size. We definitely need to have less (debt)."

Of the 180 countries reviewed by the IMF, only four have less public debt that Russia and it is the lowest among G20 countries, in percentage of GDP. Yet, Russia is among the bottom five countries in the G20 in bond yields.

Vladimir Putin’s claim contradicts both Russian government data and independent reports regarding the dynamics of retail prices for gasoline, showing that the president’s statistic is significantly lower than the actual increase.

Tatiana Golikova

Russia's Deputy Prime Minister

“In 2005, our mortality rate was 16.1 per 100,000 people. We managed to reduce it by 23%... We have reduced mortality from cardiovascular diseases by 37%, from road accidents – by 54.5%, from tuberculosis – by four times.”

While the overall mortality rate in Russia has decreased in the last 14 years, still Russia's ranks in comparison with global indicators are higher than average. Moreover, the prognosis for the next 15 years are pessimistic.

Rick Sanchez, RT America host

RT America host

“The demonization of Russia is the engine that drives, if nothing else, our weapons industry. Using a complicit media, the arms industry makes billions and billions of dollars simply convincing us, and other countries all over the world, that they need protection from Russia… Whether Russia really poses a threat or not doesn’t really matter. That’s the real story here, that’s the real takeaway from the Mueller report.”

Independent analyses show that the global arms trade increased steadily over 2008-2018. During the period of the Mueller investigation, the U.S. share in the global weapons transfer increased by less than one percent.